The rural as a site of recreation: evidence and contradictions in Spain from a geographical perspective

Abstract

There is a wide range of individual or collective interpretations of the conceptualisation of rurality. Rural tourism (RT) is a key component in the politics of rural spaces in Europe and, consequently, is clearly associated with the debate about rurality in each country. In addition to RT, this paper studies the framework of commoditisation, associated with its distinct character in each situation, depending on the actors involved in each process, policy or manifestation. It also discusses the role of tourism in generating different notions of rurality among the Spanish regional authorities. The information source used here consists in the critical analysis of national and regional regulations and the policy documents on RT since 1960. The paper finally concludes that RT is an important factor in the generation of different perspectives of rurality in Spain, which corresponds to its main role, rather than its socioeconomic effects, which have been limited to counteracting the effects of the rural exodus.

Measuring EU Urban‐Rural Continuum Through Fuzzy Logic

“…They became multifunctional areas, according to a broader rural restructuring framework (Fløysand & Jakobsen 2007): they started supplying cities with a larger set of services and public goods (e.g. clean air, biodiversity, natural landscape; Kelly & Ilbery 1995;Cloke 2006;Paniagua 2012). Postindustrial rurality model shows new features.…”

“…) and diffusion of ICT (Castells ) also reduced rural remoteness, fostering counter‐urbanisation processes and increasing tourism and recreation in rural areas (Hoggart et al . ; Paniagua ).…”

“…Since the 1980s, some of them have experienced sociodemographic and economic renaissance (OECD 1994;Kelly & Ilbery 1995;Bollman & Bryden 1997), due to the strengthening of small and medium-sized towns in rural areas (Courtney et al 2007(Courtney et al , 2008 and diffusion of SMEs networks out of large cities (Piore & Sabel 1984;Brusco 1989;Becattini 1998). Improvement in physical infrastructures (Agarwal et al 2009) and diffusion of ICT (Castells 1996) also reduced rural remoteness, fostering counter-urbanisation processes and increasing tourism and recreation in rural areas (Hoggart et al 1995;Paniagua 2012).…”

Perceptions of Agritourism and Cooperation: Comparisons between an Island and a Mountain Region in Greece

“…with synergy and cooperation are becoming powerful". Furthermore, the survey reveals that the development of agritourism and rural tourism are closely linked to the existence of a legislation that permits funding (e.g., the LEADER Initiative), as also cited for other rural areas by Iakovidou et al (2002) and Paniagua (2012) [57,58].…”

New Rurality, Events, and Festivals in Selected Places of Rural Spain

“…Rural festivals or events are often the (end) product of permanent (re)articulation within a geographical context of the new comfortable realities of the distinguishing singularities of a particular locality and rural community. The new conceptualizations of acceptable rurality are the consequence of a dynamic combination of a variety of elements (Paniagua 2012). The (new) rurality, through its different, multiple, and conglomerate expressions, is a component of signification and differentiation associated with a particular locality (Cartier 2005), a specific meeting point for the old rural population and the new (seasonal or permanent) residents of urban origin.…”